Professor Ben Laker delivers 'Too Proud to Lead' webinar

Professor Ben Laker, Professor of Leadership at Henley Business School, led a webinar on 17 June 2021 to explain his research on the dangers of overconfidence in leadership.

The webinar, titled 'Too Proud to Lead', was based around Professor Laker's book of the same title, co-authored by David Cobb and Rita Trehan and published by Bloomsbury. In his presentation, Professor Laker laid out how confidence is a vital attribute for any successful business leader, but can often be taken too far and become destructive behaviour.

Using several relevant examples, including the mishap of the Best Picture award at the 2017 Oscars, Professor Laker described to the audience how confidence can transform into hubris. He explained that the source of hubris in leaders stems from four key areas: repeated successes, hyper-confidence, uncritical acceptance of accolades and exemption from the rules.

Professor Laker went onto explore how arrogance in leadership has both an economic and psychological cost, which can lead to the collapse of both individuals and organisations. He sought to give the audience insight into how to identify and address hubris, in both themselves and in their workplace, and finished by outlining his own approach to leadership, focusing on building trust and inspiration.